Librisa Spa pedicure, The Grand Daddy and Maya's Kitchen (20-Mar-09)
GRUESOME details aside, diabetics have to take special care of our feet. While for others having a pamper pedicure or visiting a podiatrist may be a luxury indulgence, to those for whom sugar has become the enemy, it is a pleasant but essential duty. Entering the Librisa Spa at The Mount Nelson Hotel is like a giant exhalation of stress.
Walking from the waiting and change rooms outside into the spa areas is a real relief. Their emphasis is on the healing power of touch rather than high-tech equipment. Treatment rooms are large and calmly decorated. The feet are bathed before being exfoliated (removing dead skin cells) in a beautiful pewter hand-beaten bath. Next nails are trimmed (straight across please). There’s smoothing of the heels and hard-skin areas with a pumice and then some cuticle action. I think a massage followed but I woke up an hour later feeling great with divinely soft feet so I’m a light on the details.
Amazingly, the Mount Nelson Lounge, so famous for its deliciously indulgent Afternoon Tea even had diabetic and wheat free biscuits available.
Librisa Spa. Mount Nelson Hotel. 021-483-1000
The Grand Daddy is the revamped Metropole Hotel. It was bought by the chaps from Daddy Long Legs Art Hotel further up in Long Street after the Metrople’s owner was plunged into scandal.
It’s a four-star property pitched at just under R1000 per room, per night.
Aside from missing bath robes and slippers, the room we stayed in, 306 a corner unit with three wonderful windows, exceeds five-star standards.
Décor is contemporary with a flash of quirky elements. The fabric on our headboard and hanging lights, for example, was a design incorporating South African place names while the two large bolsters that crowned the fabulously comfortable bed had potato-stamp images of South African icons - maps, ostriches etc. Local but very, very lekker.
The great attraction of The Grand Daddy is the roof-top trailer park which has elevated trailer trash to dash with its six Airstream retro caravans that have each been decorated, a la rooms at Daddy Long Legs, by a different artist.
There is a dynamic energy about The Grand Daddy but the Saturday night we stayed we were kept awake late by music from the bar. Perhaps it is better suited to those younger than I.
The First Floor Daddy Cool bar is a hoot - there is so much white that even the “ostrich-leather” chairs are virginal. There is bling and gold accents.Look out for the collection of gold chains that act as a visual curtain for the bar’s anteroom.
The Grand Daddy 021-424-7247
Maya’s Kitchen is a kitchenware brand with retail stores in Sea Point and Cavendish Square. To mark a decade of trading and fresh rebranding, they arranged an event at The 7th Floor, the fabulous venue at Foodcorp’s Observatory offices. I was asked to act as Master of Ceremonies at a staging of a “Ready, Steady, Cook” type of cook-off between chefs Peter Goffe-Wood (Cassia Restaurant and others) and Neil Jewell of Bread & Wine in Franschhoek. Watch the video at www.zoopy.co.za.
www.mayaskitchen.co.za.
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Signal restaurant at Cape Grace (12-Mar-09)
HOTEL restaurants have a real challenge at securing non-residential business. There are many reasons for this phenomenon, but chief among them is that restaurant patrons typically need to walk through the hotel to reach their table.
Signal, the new restaurant at Cape Grace, will soon have direct access from the roadside. The location has always been fabulous. With panoramic views of Signal Hill (from whence the name comes) and harbour life, the outlook is spectacular.
Now, after a renovation (they called it a “refashioning” but I think it much more than that) and divine interior by designer Kathi Weixelbaumer, it is a premier dining venue. The interior is a mix of Cape Dutch meets Pierre Cronje with witty touches like lace-up chairs that makes me think of pirates and bodice rippers.
By contrast, there are modern and contemporary pieces such as the famous Philippe Starck “ghost” chairs. The chandeliers are especially amusing. I think them a highlight.
Although long overdue for guests paying top dollar, The Cape Grace now offers its entire menu throughout the hotel – be it at the pool, in the library, in the bedroom or served in the restaurant.
The style of food, created by a culinary team led by Executive Chef, Malika van Reenen, is described as notably Cape with international flair. I very much like that despite this being a sought-after five-star property, there are many menu items under R100. One could just enjoy a pasta or sandwich over lunch or extend to a degustation menu.
When we visited, there was hardly an open table in the restaurant. Had we not had the benefit of delicious canapés prior to dinner, we would have been ravenous as the food took long, too long, to arrive.
There was once an advertising slogan that suggested if you asked the price you probably couldn’t afford it. This, of course, is nonsense but becomes the underbelly for a annoying restaurant trend where waiters sing off a list of specials without providing their prices. The fact that two wines-by-the-glass each cost more than our main courses as recommended by the sommelier irked me. I had already mentioned a wine that I had in mind which would have indicated what I had planned to spend.
Some of the food was fabulous. By far the most delicious, scrambled eggs with asparagus and truffle oil (R90), is about the most decadent thing to
eat on a budget. Grilled calamari and pancetta a la plancha (grilled on a metal plate) (R90) looked delicious but while the chilled avocado cream with marinated vegetables (R70) kept its promise of being light, it was ethereal to the point of being unsatisfying. As main courses, the Saldanha Bay mussels (R120) (served in a deep bowl in a Cape Malay curry) was fragrant and deliciously filling.
It needed a finger bowl or, at the very least, moist towels. There were rave reviews about the beef fillet encrusted with Parma ham, grilled porcini mushrooms and truffle sauce (R195) but it is a very heavy dish and its imbiber didn’t sleep at all well. I thoroughly enjoyed the quince and tamarind jus with the polenta and coconut “quenelles” but not the Springbok (R160) which I found overcooked despite asking that it be cooked to the chef’s liking. There is an interesting and varied selection of side dishes to accompany main courses or for R20 per additional portion.
The curried butternut in a coconut sauce with coriander was delicious, a happy dish beaming colour and it was exciting to see soba noodles with summer vegetables on a non-Asian menu.
021 410-7100.
www.CapeGrace.com
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Beluga & Ben's on the Beach (02-Mar-09)
BELUGA restaurant is a case-study for how to get it right. Through a series of on-going special offers on sushi and cocktails and frequent advertising, Beluga has ensured those who are attracted to the honey-pot find something deliciously sweet and come back again – and again.
I always enjoyed chef patron’s Craig Paterson cuisine at The Cape Grace and am ashamed it took me so long to sample his wares at Beluga and sister restaurant Sevruga.
With partner Oscar Kotze and a large brigade of chefs, they are producing excellent cuisine at amazing prices.
The fact the restaurant was jam-packed before 7pm is proof of the efficacy of well-promoted special offers. The fact it remained packed until we left after 10pm is proof of a well run operation that provides delicious food. They are now famous for their Pacific Rim sushi offering. We ordered a portion of vegetable tempura (R39) offered with a sweet chilli sauce or wasabi mayo although we were summarily brought the sweet chilli. It is a large potion and a perfect, though mildly calorific, accompaniment to drinks.
The mixed salmon and tuna platter came next. It was beautifully presented with the seared tuna sashimi and salmon sashimi served side-by-side as if a single piece of fish to be teased apart with chopsticks. It was great value at R189 so at half-price you can imagine! Expect 6 x Salmon Roses, 6 x Seared Tuna Roses, 4 x Seared Tuna Sashimi, 4 x Salmon Sashimi and 2 x Rainbow Rolls.
We both remarked that we should have ended our meal at this point, having enjoyed an elegant sufficiency but ignoring probity we ordered main courses.
The duck bobotie (R99), one of chef Craig’s signature dishes, is brilliant. It is served in a ramekin with a rolled rootie and shards of samoosa pastry with a miniature leaf salad dressed in atchara oil. This bobotie is not minced duck but rather sweet shredded meat under a rich (yes folks, its made with cream) savoury custard topping. Although not a new preparation idea, the Terrikyaki-glazed salmon (R129) is served with pomme berny (mashed potato shaped like a pear, crumbed and deep fried and a wonderful beetroot and tatziki salad. Very good.
The chocolate truffle cake was just too rich and sweet for JP to enjoy more than a spoonful.
Beluga, The Foundry, Prestwich street, Cape Town. 021-418-2948.
Ben’s on the Beach is another restaurant that is justly popular for its brilliant value for money offering. There were people waiting at the bar for a table to become free on the Sunday when we lunched there.
Our waitress was particularly good at dutifully warning tables that the Smoked Salmon Savoy (R39) (diced salmon in a dill mayo with crème fraiche served with a few greens) was salty. I didn’t find it so. I found the chicken livers (R32) (enclosed in bacon and served with a creamy mild peri-peri sauce overcooked, but JP loved them.
At R99, the Mauritian Seafood casserole is among the most costly menu items, but the portion is so huge that two would be sufficiently fed on the wine-steamed line fish, mussels, calamari and prawns (not those tasteless floury ones like bad apples but juicy firm ones) all cooked with ginger, chilli and doused in coconut cream and served with rice and steamed broccoli with tomato smoor. So often these dishes taste like a homogenous mush but here each individual flavour was clear and gently held together in the silkiest sauce like a pashmina billowing in the wind.
Ben’s on the Beach.
021-021 853-7977
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